inspiration

Fiesta Cake

I am very critical of my work, so I’m always pleasantly surprised when I actually like something I’ve created. The Fiesta cake was for Quica’s 90th birthday celebration. I met with her daughter and granddaughter, and together we came up with the design based on the invitation by Wedding Paper Divas. The finished cake had Quica’s photo on it in an oval, beaded fondant frame. You can see some of the changes I made from the sketch to the final product.

A younger Quica. I love her lips.

The invitation design.

The sketch.

The cake.

pink and white papel picado cake

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Buttons and Brides

I am very visual. Give me a picture, and I’ll create a cake to capture the feel, flavor (no pun intended), and design of the image. I recently collaborated with Carter and Cook, an event styling company in San Diego, to create a cake for a bridal luncheon photo shoot around this inspiration:

Several artists worked on the shoot: Amy, from the Wedding Chicks, coordinated the project and Jessica Claire took the photographs. Leigh Ann, from The Floral Lab, designed the flowers and Lori, the artist behind Paper and Thread, created the invitations. Ink and Button provided the hair accessories for the shoot.

The team met at Cafe Mimosa in San Clemente, California to scout out the locale and finalize the design concept. We agreed to incorporate some tangerines and buttons into the design.

I love making cakes for photo shoots. I love the freedom to create anything I want within a given design framework and to interpret the concept in whatever way I choose. Here, I created a centerpiece cake and four miniature versions of the centerpiece cake.

I made everything you see on the cake–from the flowers to the buttons to the lemons and kumquats–out of fondant.

And here are some other cute shots.

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Invitation-Inspired Wedding Cake

I just love easy brides. Christina was a very easy bride. She asked me to design her wedding cake based on her invitation.

At first I wanted to recreate the design all the way around each tier, but then I thought it was too busy. I emailed her the sketch to show her how it would look with the design both all around and sporadically placed. I thought for sure she would want to tweak it, but she loved the sketch just the way it was. I told you she was easy.
I covered the cake in ivory fondant to match the invitation and piped the design with royal icing.

The reception was at George’s Greek Cafe on Pine Street in Long Beach. Thanks to Josh McMurtrie for providing these pictures.

And thanks to Christina for being such an easy bride.
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From Concept to Cake: A Jessica Clair Shoot Produced by Lollipop Events

Design inspiration for a wedding can come from anywhere, really. Recently, I worked with Cortnie from Lollipop Events and Jessica Claire from Jessica Claire Wedding Photography to design a travel-themed wedding.

Event designers often use inspiration boards to give a visual voice to their idea and to fine-tune their concept. Here are the inspiration boards Cortnie created:


As a designer, I am very visual, so an inspiration board helps me conceptualize the cake. Once I have my idea, I create my sketch. Sometimes I create numerous sketches. For this particular cake, I was happy with the first sketch, but I ended up changing the design for the actual cake.

I was very impressed by how seamlessly Cortnie and her team were able to incorporate all of the elements into a cohesive design.

The wedding cake topper was inspired by the Moroccan art in the inspiration boards. I hand-sculpted it using fondant.

Cortnie wanted vintage stamps, so I printed some images with edible ink. (Lo and behold, thanks to my poor inventory skills, I ran out of icing sheets. Melody, my friend and proprietor of Sweet and Saucy Shop, lent me the edible icing sheets. Thank you Melody!) I cut them into stamp-sized rectangles and attached them to ribbon using fondant tabs.

I applied the sequins by hand. Overall, I was very happy with the cake. I really thought it captured the concept while still looking simple, streamlined, and sophisticated.

A big thank you to Julie Roberts of Julie Roberts Photo for providing the photos above.

The photo shoot was part of a workshop for photographers given by Jessica Claire. Her work from the shoot appeared on Style Me Pretty.
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Edible Brooch Cake

This three tier cake was for a wedding on The Queen Mary in Long Beach. The bride wore a simple gown bedecked with a colorful brooch. The bridesmaids also wore brooches similar to the ones on the cake. Below, the cake and some closeups of the brooches. The best part? The brooches were completely edible and the cake was filled with a maple bacon buttercream. Check back later this week for the recipe!


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